Nikon UK underhand price increases on D800 and D4

Effective immediately the UK prices of the D800 and D4 are now as follows

D800 up from £2399 to £2599 (in the US the D800 is $3000, in the UK its now – $4600)

D4 increase from £4799 to £5299 (in the US the D4 is $6000, in the UK its now- $8500)

Nikon UK confirmed a “systems error” has resulted in the wrong prices being given for the UK market.

This is bad form on your part Nikon, where UK prices were already vastly higher than say the US. The D4 is now priced the same or higher than Canon’s New 1Dx camera, depending where you look. Dealers are saying that even pre orders might be effected. if any one wants one of these cameras, its now going to be more expensive for a while. I suggest that everyone that doesn’t need one professionally, for their work, hang onto their old cameras. Nikon should not be allowed to get away with this and the only way they will hear us if we hit them financially.

What Nikon have done is look at the Canon prices and the high demand and said we may as well fleece the UK market for more money, they wont complain.

If i decide to get one, I might be going to the US next year and i will get one over there. The difference in cost will effectively give me a free holiday, even accounting for VAT / Import Tax.

Male Crossbill, full breeding plumage

Finally got a shot of a Male Crossbill in full breeding plumage.

he landed for maybe 1 minute max during the 9 hours we were sitting under camo netting in heather / grass / mud.

Nikon D300
Nikon 500 F4VR lens
Nikon 1.7xTCII Teleconverter

effective focal length – 1275mm

Lightroom 4

Adobe have just launched Lightroom 4, the latest update to their successful digital asset management / raw converter program for the Mac and PC and even better, for the first time, they have slashed the price in half.Full version is £106

Upgrade version is £59

available now for both Mac and PC

Great Crested Grebes

Great Crested Grebes, a photo by TheApertureMan on Flickr.

The Great Crested Grebes are back at RSPB Saltholme once again and are currently displaying their courtship rituals on the large pond at the opposite side of the main complex

Happy New Year and all the best for 2012

Nuthatch, a photo by TheApertureMan on Flickr.

Nuthatch taken in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

Spirit of the Jaguar

Jaguar on the prowl

Nikon D3
Nikon 500 F4 VR lens
Gitzo Tripod and Wimberly Gimbal head

Paddies Hole Sunset

Sometimes everything works in our favour.

I went down to Paddies Hole for a couple of hours with my Dad so see what sort of sunset we could get.

I was also trying out my new Nikon 24 F1.4G and 85 F1.4G lenses.

Ive never seen the water at Paddies as flat calm as this before, it was like a millpond and the light was quite special.

This was taken as a 14 shot Panorama, handheld with the 85mm lens at f1.6.

I set the camera to 6 frames per second, prefocused and panned the shot while holding the shutter down. The 1/5000 sec shutter speed allowed me to take this shot handheld without the risk of any motion blur from my fast panning.

Depth of field you get at f1.6 when the subject is say 12 or more metres away was sufficient to give the front boats a little separation but to also provide enough sharpness to the rest of the foreground boats.